Audioscripts Listening Practice Test 25

SECTION 1

Cindy:   So, Bob, how many people have said that they’re coming on the company picnic?

Bob:       Well, Cindy, we’ve got 35 definite and another 10 probable.

Cindy:   Shall we say 50? (Q1)

Bob:       I think so. And we’ve fixed the date for…?

Cindy:   26th. The last Sunday in August. (Q2)

Bob:       Great! I hope the weather is good.

Cindy:   Should be. Now, we have to decide where to order the food from and what kind of things we want.

Bob:       Right. What’s our budget?

Cindy:   We decided to go for £10 a head for food and £5 a head for drinks. (Q3)

Bob:       OK. I got some pamphlets from caterers. What do you think?

Cindy:   The most important thing is to make sure there’s a variety of food. We don’t want people complaining that they don’t like anything.

Bob:       We also don’t want food that could deteriorate in the sun ice cream (Q4), that kind of thing.

Cindy:   You’ve seen these pamphlets. What do you think?

Bob:       Well, I thought Paris Kitchen looked good. The price almost exactly meets our budget and they seem to have a good variety.

Cindy:    I don’t know. A friend of mine used them for her company and wasn’t impressed.

Bob:       Really? What exactly didn’t she like?

Cindy:   Well, the food… she said the food was good, but not quite the variety they’d expected. The drinks included some wine (Q5), which was apparently not very good.

Bob:       Oh. Well, perhaps we need to consider this one… er … Company Caterers.

Cindy:   Looks a bit pricey. Mind you, I’ve heard that they are very good.

Bob:       Let me check the price. … Yes … £12 a head for food. That’s more than our budget. Do you think we could get a discount?

Cindy:   Let’s see if it says anything in the pamphlet. … Yes, they do offer a discount for groups of more than 30. … 10% (Q6) … does that help us?

Bob:       10% off £12 … It’s still more than we budgeted for.

Cindy:   Hey, look at this one. Celebrations.

Bob:       It’s a new company. I asked a few people about them, but no-one has any ideas.

Cindy:   Well, let’s see. 9 pounds a head for food and five pounds a head for drinks. That’s fine. What kind of food do they have? It says here that they just provide cold meals (Q7) for picnics. Well, that’s OK. … And they include vegetarian dishes…. We do have some vegetarian (Q8) to take into consideration.

Bob:       Well, it looks good to me. The only problem is their lack of experience. I mean, it’s a bit of a risk, isn’t it?

Cindy:   Yes. If the food is no good, we’ll look incompetent.

Bob:       Ah, look here. It says that we can visit their premises and try some of the dishes they offer.

Cindy:   You mean we might get a free lunch? Shall we call them and arrange to go and see them?

Bob:       OK. Which day? How about tomorrow?

Cindy:   No. We’ve got that meeting. The day after tomorrow. Thursday. (Q9)

Bob:       Good. Time?

Cindy:   11?

Bob:       Good. Right, what’s their phone number? 28 65 34 79 (Q10). We also need to ask them whether they can deliver straight to the picnic site, don’t we?

Cindy:   Yes. I don’t think that’ll be a problem, though. I mean, it’s on the outskirts of the city, but it’s not too far away. Does the price include delivery?

Bob:       It doesn’t say, but the other companies include it, so they should. If they don’t, our budget still allows us to pay a small fee.

SECTION 2

Presenter: Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Sally Miller and I’m here to offer you some advice on legal matters whilst you are studying at this university. Happily, most international students complete their courses without running into any serious legal problems, but if you do find yourself involved in a legal dispute of any kind, ask for help. There are two options. First, contact the students’ union or welfare officer. Even if they cannot help you directly, they should be able to advise you where to go for help. The second possibility is to contact the Citizens Advice Bureau in your area. You can find them in the local telephone directory. They will be able to recommend (Q11) a solicitor if you need one, and tell you if there is a local law centre providing free legal advice. They will also be able to tell you whether you can claim legal aid (Q12) to help pay for any court and legal fees. Let me give you some basic information about the police. The police have the power to stop and search anyone who appears to be behaving in a suspicious manner.

If you are arrested for any reason, even if you know it to be a wrong reason, remember a few very important things. One, don’t be aggressive. Two, do not try to bribe the police officer. Three, if you are arrested by plain-clothes police officers, ask to see some form of identification (Q13). Four, give your true name and address if the officer asks you to. Lying to the police is a criminal offence. Five, do not sign any statement until you have received advice (Q14) from a solicitor. There is always a solicitor on duty at every police station. Six, you will be entitled to make one telephone call. If you use this call to telephone a friend, urge your friend to contact someone from your university or from the students’ union and get advice about what you should do next. If you find yourself in trouble with the police, it is very important to get professional advice. Contact any of the following: your university welfare officer, the students’ union at your university, your local Citizens Advice Bureau, a local law centre.

If you are found guilty of an offence, it could seriously damage your position as an international student, so be sure to ask for help as early in the process as possible. Remember: obey the local laws! The laws here may not be quite the same as in your own country. Here are a few examples of actions that are illegal here. It is against the law to: possess offensive weapons (Q15), e.g. knives, guns, chemical sprays used for personal defence—even women are not allowed to carry sprays or other deterrents to protect themselves against possible assault—except for rape alarms, possess or supply (Q16) hard or soft drugs, disturb the peace — this is called “disorderly conduct”. This means that you can be arrested for being too noisy or rowdy. A few words about drinking. In this country, it is perfectly acceptable for adults to drink alcohol in moderate amounts.

For many people, drinking is an established part of their social life—”going out for a drink” is how they relax or spend time with friends. If you go to a party or visit people at home in the evening, your host will probably offer you a drink. Often a lot of university social life can revolve around drinking, especially for undergraduates. Do not be surprised if people arrange to meet in a bar (Q17) or if events are held in a pub. But you are not obliged to drink alcohol if you do not want to even if you are in a pub or at a party where everyone else is drinking. You can always ask for a non-alcoholic drink instead (Q18). And if you feel uncomfortable going to places that serve alcohol, explain this to your friends— there are lots of other places where you can meet. If you do choose to drink, remember that you should never drive a motor vehicle after drinking alcohol— it is dangerous and the police can impose serious penalties on you.

Also remember that being drunk in public is not acceptable either, and the police can arrest you for it. Drugs and alcohol can cause serious problems. Let me repeat that in this country, it is illegal to use drugs, except under medical supervision (Q19). But, if you do use illegal drugs and you develop a problem, there are organisations you can contact. Contact your students’ union or your student counsellor. Anyone over 18 years old can legally buy and consume alcoholic drinks (Q20) in this country, but if you think you might be drinking too much, get help and advice from your student counsellor or your doctor. Again, there are special organisations that can help you with drug and alcohol problems. Contact them.

SECTION 3

Carlos:                 OK, everyone. Let’s look at what presentation tips we have come up with for our next seminar. Melissa?

Melissa:               OK, here’s my first tip. Show up early (Q21). Some experience presenters say that something good is bound to happen! I’m not sure about that, but…

David:                  Well, … you may have a chance to head off some technical problem. Also, at the beginning, before you actually begin your presentation, people filter in slowly. It’s a great time to introduce yourself.

Melissa:               Can’t argue with that! Simona had some ideas about opening.

Simona:               Have a strong opening. I picked up a few ideas for structuring your opening. First, never apologize (Q22). If you’re worried the presentation won’t go well, keep it to yourself and give it your best shot. Besides, people are usually too preoccupied with their own problems to notice yours.

Carlos:                 I like that!

Simona:               Open by addressing the following three questions: What’s the problem? Who cares? What’s your solution?

Carlos:                 Excellent suggestion! David? You’ve gone quiet!

David:                  Well, my next suggestion is PGP. That means that with every subtopic, you should move from the Particular to the General and back to the Particular (Q23). Even though the purpose of a subtopic is to convey the general information, bracing it with particulars is a good way to draw attention and promote retention. (Q24)

Melissa:               I’ve got another one. This might not be a tip so much as a law. Give everyone at least one piece of paper. A piece of paper is a record from your presentation. People can use that to help recall the details of the presentation, or better yet to tell others about it.

Carlos:                 The next tip that I have is know your audience (Q25). This is, of course, a general piece of advice for public speaking. See if you can find out what styles of information presentation they are most familiar and comfortable with. Adapting your presentation to those styles will leave fewer barriers to the direct communication of your material.

Simona:               I like that idea. We mentioned possible technical problems before. My next point is that maybe speakers should rethink the overhead projector. Is one really necessary?

David:                  I think that often it is. but I agree with your basic point (Q26), Simona. Don’t use one just because it’s there. Maybe a good tip is to consider carefully what you are putting on your slides.

Simona:               Yes, David, that’s a very good point to make. Slide content is … well, you don’t want too much … too little. Carlos?

Carlos:                 Good points, both of you. Another point I have is to respect the audience. Don’t condescend by “dumbing down” your lecture. Show them respect by saying what you believe and what you know to be the whole story.

Melissa:               I also have a point about humor. I think that humour is generally good, but be careful with it. Humour in a presentation works best (Q27) when it actually drives the presentation forward. If you find you’re using canned jokes that don’t depend on the context, of the presentation, eliminate them David?

David:                  Maybe, Melissa, but always be very careful about jokes that. put. down a class of people. If you’re going to alienate your audience, do it on the merits of your content.

Simona:               Also, avoid masculine-or even feminine pronouns as universal. It can be a nuisance to half the audience. As universal, use the plural “they”. The Oxford English Dictionary has allowed “they” as a gender neutral singular pronoun for years.

Carlos:                 Thanks, Simona. Thinking towards the end. Take care with questions (Q28). Many people judge the quality of your talk not by the twenty minutes of presentation, but on the thirty seconds you spend answering their question (Q28). Be sure to allow long pauses for questions. Ten seconds may seem like a long pause when you’re at the front of the room, but. it flows naturally from the audience’s point of view.

Simona:               Let people know you believe your material. Speak with conviction. Believing your subject, matter is one of the best ways to speak more effectively!

Melissa:               Finish early, and something good is almost bound to happen (Q29). If nothing else, people will be able to leave early, and suddenly they’ll have an extra couple of minutes to do things they didn’t think they’d get to. People will really like you if you do that.

David:                  I think we have missed a key point. Practice! Practice over and over and over. If you can, record your presentation. Play it back and watch yourself. You’ll discover a thousand horrible things you never knew about yourself. Now watch it again without the sound. Why are your hands flying around like that? Now listen to it without the picture. Get rid of those urns! Now watch it at twice the normal speed. This emphasizes low frequency cycles in your gestures.

Carlos:                 David, those were excellent points! I have one more. Something quite simple, but often overlooked. I read that the two most dehydrating things you can do in modern civilization are live presentations and air travel. I don’t know if it’s really true, but the message is that, the way to stay sharp is to drink lots of water (Q30). Take care of your body, especially your voice. If possible, avoid alcohol too.

Melissa:               So, we’ve got to organise these points now…

SECTION 4

Welcome to this introductory lecture on the Celts. Who were the Celts? The Celts were an Indo-European group, that is, related linguistically to the Greeks, the Germanic peoples, certain Italic groups and peoples of the Indian subcontinent. They arose in central Europe at the beginning of the first millennium B.C. and were an iron (Q31) using and horse rearing peoples. By the end of the first millennium B.C. their cultural group had spread up and down the Danube and Rhine, taking in Gaul, Ireland and Britain, across central Europe, into northern Italy and northern Spain. Their roaming across Europe led some of the Celtic tribes to sack Rome in 390 B.C. creating a fear of the northern barbarians that was to haunt Romans for hundreds of years to come.

The Celts are defined archaeologically by the type-sites of Hallstatt and La Tene, the former being taken to relate to an earlier phase of cultural development. Hallstatt, an ancient salt mining area, was excavated from 1876 (Q32) onwards by the Viennese Academy of Sciences and provided the first classification of the prehistoric Celts. In 1858 (Q33), the waters of Lake Neuchatel in Switzerland sunk to a low level, revealing a large prehistoric settlement with a huge number of surviving artifacts. The nearby town of La Tene gave its name to the second phase of Celtic cultural development. However, please note that these phases overlap through time, and are defined according to geographical area. Let’s look at each of these, taking the Hallstatt first.

Hallstatt culture is characterized in 4 stages (Q34). A & B were during the late Bronze Age, from about 1200 to 700 BC; C was in the Early Iron Age, from about 700-600 BC; D was from about 600 to 475 BC. The Hallstatt culture spanned central Europe, with its centre in the area around Hallstatt in Central Austria. There were two distinct cultural zones – the eastern and the western. At the start of the period, long distance trade was already well established in copper and tin (Q35) – the basic requirements for manufacture of bronze. From about 700 BC, trade in iron also became established. The Hallstatt area also already controlled the trade in salt, crucial when there were few other means to preserve food. Control of these two crucial trade goods—iron and salt—provided the basis for the accumulation of wealth and influence. From 800 BC, some burials of rich people can be identified, in central Europe, with grave goods such as wheeled wagons and iron swords.

Hallstatt C saw the construction of fortified hilltop (Q36) settlements to the North of the Alps. These had burial mounds holding very high quality goods, such as vehicles and expensive imported treasures. By the time of the Hallstatt D period, these increasingly extravagant burial mounds were clustered around a few major hill forts to the southwest of the region. This suggests a development and a concentration of wealth and social power, possibly based on the development of Massilia (present-day Marseilles) as a Greek trading port. The expansion of luxury trade (Q37) brought greater opportunities for profit and helped to create an increasingly stratified society, with the development of a wealthy nobility. Over the period from 1846 to 1863, a thousand graves were found at Hallstatt, with an astonishing range of artefacts, including clothing and salt mining equipment as well as weapons, jewellery, pottery and imported bronze vessels in the “chieftains” graves.

The La Tene era was the time of Celtic expansion and migration (Q38) and the time of formation of the myths, The La Tene culture is named after the site in Switzerland where it was first discovered. The La Tene people were those known to the Romans as Gaids. Originally found in an area from Eastern France to Bohemia, the La Tene culture spread rapidly (Q39) from about 400 BC. The La Tene Celts settled in Spain in 450 BC, in Northern Italy in 400 BC, invaded Rome in 390 BC, invaded Greece in 279 BC, invaded Galatia (in modern Turkey) in 270 BC. By 200 BC, they occupied the lands that are now Britain, the Netherlands, Brittany, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland.

There is much debate over how much of the expansion into Britain was achieved through invasion and settlement and how much was the expression of cultural transfer that accompanied trade and reflected the commonality of kinship and language of many tribes. There is little evidence for actual migration of La Tene people into Britain. Nevertheless, it does appear that the La Tene culture was more militarily than the Hallstatt one. The La Tene graves (Q40) across Europe hold iron weapons – swords and spearheads – and wooden shields, as well as everyday items such as razors, yokes, cauldrons and jewelry.

Listening Practice Test 25